Backers say 'house of prayer for all nations source of true peace'

The recent effort that created the commemorative “Trump-Cyrus Coin,” sporting images of President Trump and ancient Persian King Cyrus, is now minting a special edition “70 Year Redemption Coin” to raise funds to build Jerusalem’s Third Temple as a house of prayer for all nations.

The organizers, which include Israel’s nascent Sanhedrin, the Mikdash (Temple) Educational Center and the United Temple Movements, have prepared the new coin to honor the 70th anniversary of the nation, which takes place this Thursday, April 19.

They believe the Temple project is the only way to avert the outbreak of another Middle East war.

“The Temple, as a house of prayer for all nations, is the source of true peace,” said Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the nascent Sanhedrin, a biblically mandated court of 71 elders, told Breaking Israel News. “It has been presented in the media as a ‘flashpoint,’ the focus of conflict. That is the opposite of the truth and has actually made this lie into a reality.”

The previous project involving the commemorative Trump-Cyrus coin was so successful the organizers of the new effort are optimistic about an international effort to plan and fund the rebuilding of the Temple, a project fraught with controversy even within Israel, because of the Islamic presence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock – two shrines atop the Temple Mount.

The Trump-Cyrus coin, which honored two Israeli foreign heroes – one present and one past – came following President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital.

Trump-Cyrus coin (photo: Mikdash Educational Center)

“In the context of the coin, we are expressing gratitude for President Trump’s bold decision to transfer the American Embassy to Jerusalem thereby recognizing King David’s capital and the site of Solomon’s Temple as the true capital of Israel,” said Mordechai Persoff, head of the Mikdash Educational Center, a non-profit organization for education about the Temple.

The superimposing of the images of the two leaders, separated by more than 2,500 years, was meant to mark their common characteristics, said Persoff.

“They are non-Jewish leaders who played an essential role in the return of the Jews to Jerusalem,” he said. “Hopefully, Trump will continue in this path and, like Cyrus, play a central role in the building of the Temple.”
Immediately following Trump’s election victory in 2016, the Sanhedrin also invited Trump to initiate a joint effort with Russian President Vladimir Putin in building the Third Temple.

“If Putin decides that he would prefer to build the Temple with Trump rather than go to war with him, then we would be happy to put his image on the next coin alongside Trump and Cyrus,” said Rabbi Weiss.

About the need to rebuild the Temple, Persoff said, “There was a time when ships would sail to Israel in peace, to serve God, each in their own way. Now, since we don’t have the Temple, navies from all over the world are sailing the Mediterranean, ready to make war.”

The organizers see a prophecy in the Book of Jeremiah that suggests the 70th year back in the land could be critical to the Temple project.

Jeremiah 29:10 says: “For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”

“Normally this is understood as speaking about the return from the Babylonian Exile, which lasted 70 years,” Rabbi Weiss said. “But it may be this was also a hint that we would return to the Temple 70 years after the establishment of Israel. In any case, 70 years is an auspicious period of time that should be recognized in a significant manner.”

He says that only part of God’s covenant with Abraham has been completed, the return to the land, but it will not be fully realized until “the Jewish Temple is restored to its proper place.”

The coin is currently being sold on the Mikdash Education Center’s website. All proceeds from sales will be used for re-enactments of Temple ceremonies, education on the Temple or transferred to the Third Temple when it is built.